While eating, Ruminas noticed Beru was staring at her. She thought it wanted to eat too, but when she brought out the food, it shook its head.
"You don't eat normal food, do you? What do you eat?" Ruminas asked.
Beru raised its head, its small but sharp eyes gleaming in the darkness. It wiggled a bit and then raised its front paw, gesturing something Ruminas didn't immediately understand.
She raised her eyebrows, thought for a moment, then tried to guess: "You eat... raw meat?"
Beru moved slightly, not denying but not completely confirming either.
"Or... are you absorbing energy from something?"
This time, the centipede nodded slightly.
Ruminas rested her qin on her hand, pondering: "So, you don't need normal food but absorb energy to survive… Maybe from monster corpses or something similar?"
Beru did not reply, as if he agreed with her reasoning.
"Okay, let me finish eating and then I'll go find you a monster."
Ruminas ate quickly and then went outside with Beru. The two of them wandered around the area below the station, but strangely, despite the red carpet covering the area, there was no sign of any monsters.
"I thought there would be a lot of them…"
Ruminas pointed at the red abyss carpet under her feet and asked, "Can I draw energy from it?"
Beru was momentarily motionless, then shook his head.
"Picky eater?"
"Let's go a little further then."
Ruminas continued on but was determined that there was no monster that was not there.
"I don't know either, why don't you go up there and try?"
Beru was acting strangely at this moment, it was wrapped around her arm when it suddenly crawled up to her neck, its legs deliberately moving to make Ruminas feel ticklish.
"What's wrong with you?"
Beru used his pincer to stab her neck a few times as if to say something.
"You… want to suck from me?" Ruminas opened her eyes wide.
Beru paused for a moment and then moved slightly, as if in tacit confirmation.
Ruminas frowned, her hand unconsciously touqing her neck. She didn't think Beru would be interested in her energy, but if it reacted like this, it must be really hungry.
"I can let you try a little, but don't smoke too much."
She raised her hand to her neck, signaling Beru could continue. The centipede stirred slightly, then gently dug its pincers into her skin.
Immediately, Ruminas felt a small amount of energy being sucked out of her body, as if something was slowly pulling her life force. The feeling wasn't painful, but it was a bit numb and uncomfortable.
She stood still, letting Beru absorb a bit. When she felt signs of his strength waning, she raised her hand to block him.
"Enough"
Beru obediently stopped, retracted his claws, and curled up on her shoulder.
Ruminas tried to feel her body, but found no serious effects. The amount of energy drained was insignificant, but it was enough to make her a little tired.
"Hmm… Can you really absorb directly from me?"
Beru moved slightly, as if satisfied after a meal.
"Okay, if you're hungry you can smoke a little, but not too often."
Beru shook his body slightly, as if in agreement.
Ruminas shook his head again.
"Consider it as raising you, remember to repay me later."
Beru nodded again.
Since Beru's hunger was satisfied, the two returned to the safe room, while waiting for the other players, Ruminas decided to find a way to solve her 'qi' problem.
Ruminas sat down in a corner, closing her eyes to feel the flow of "qi" in her body.
There are currently three streams of 'qi' in her body with three different colors. The white part is the most basic part and she is using it temporarily while the black part is temporarily suppressed in her heart, and speaking of her heart, she sees that it has completely turned black like a ghost heart.
"It's a bit dangerous, like having a time bomb inside me. I have to find a way to get rid of it quickly…"
Ruminas continued to feel, finally the yellow qi that represented her special ability was extremely scarce, it was located in her lower abdomen.
"What a strange place to lie…!"
Ruminas' current problem is how to further develop the yellow aura and destroy the black aura or completely control it.
Ruminas closed her eyes, trying to focus on the flow of "qi" in her body. She tried to control the yellow aura, but it was too weak, just like a small flame flickering in the darkness. On the contrary, the black aura in her heart was raging like a compressed storm.
"What a pain…"
If she did nothing, perhaps one day this black qi would take over her entire body. Or perhaps… it would erupt at an unexpected moment, causing her to lose control completely.
Ruminas tried pushing the white qi into the yellow qi, hoping to stimulate its growth, but as soon as she did, she immediately felt a resistance. The yellow qi seemed to be incompatible with the white qi, or perhaps it had a different way of functioning that she didn't understand.
She opened her eyes and sighed.
"There is no progress at all…"
But then Ruminas thought of another possibility, although it was more dangerous, she would still try it, which was to let the yellow qi and the black qi come into contact with each other.
She tried to release the suppression from her heart and guided a black ray of air out, the moment she touched it she immediately felt a headache but she had to try everything she could.
She continued to guide the black qi down and made contact with the yellow qi, the result was just as Ruminas had thought.
The yellow and black qi can come into contact with each other but they cannot be harmonious, once they come into contact, one side will be weaker and be destroyed, and that tiny ray of black qi will be destroyed in just a few short seconds.
"Indeed…"
Because Ruminas had previously used her demonic heart to strengthen her aura, which was the basis for her to create this golden aura, it could be said that they had a close relationship but at the same time, they also fought fiercely with each other.
"Then the method would be to let the yellow qi slowly destroy the black qi…? No, it can't be that simple…"
Ruminas saw that even though the black qi was destroyed, the yellow qi did not increase at all, so she still had to find a way to increase the amount of yellow qi.
"What if… instead of destroying it, I tried assimilating it…?"
It's about turning the black qi into yellow qi or finding a way for both qies to coexist but the yellow qi will be more to suppress the black qi and then she can use both of these qies!
"Well, as long as I have the basic direction, I'm not afraid I won't be able to do it. The remaining problem is just time!"
A fire of determination rose in Ruminas' eyes, she was so absorbed in adjusting her aura that she forgot about the time outside.
…
Two days later.
As Ruminas was concentrating, she suddenly heard footsteps from afar, very steady footsteps , both male and female.
She guessed the other players had arrived.
Not long after that, the door opened, appearing before her were three people, two men and one woman, including a big and muscular middle-aged man, a beautiful young girl and a young man about the same age as her.
"Oh, someone is here?" the man said.
Ruminas stopped what she was doing, her eyes not losing their vigilance as she looked at the three of them.
"Are all three of you going together?" she asked.
The man shook his head.
"I just went with this girl, and this young man I just met by chance in front of the train station recently."
Ruminas nodded and said nothing more.
The three of them didn't say anything more and started checking the notifications from their quests. After waiting for a few minutes, they seemed to understand the current situation so Ruminas didn't need to explain anything.
"Let me introduce myself, I'm Takahashi Renji, 30 years old, just an ordinary worker before," the man said.
"I'm Shiranui Aoi, so age doesn't matter, right?" The woman smiled gently.
"We met by chance on the road and have been together ever since," said Mr. Renji.
"Ruminas, there is no surname," Ruminas said.
The three of them had already introduced themselves, leaving only the young man, his back against the wall, eyes closed. When he realized someone was looking at him, he slowly opened his eyes.
"Achlys, there are no them," he said, then closed his eyes again.
The others also had no opinion on this introduction, after all it was just their first meeting so it was inconvenient to ask anything more.
"Okay, I hope we can work well together," said Mr. Renji.
"We're still short six people, huh? Looks like there's nothing left to do but wait," said Mr. Renji.
After that, each person found a corner to sit. Ruminas had not yet realized any bad intentions from them, but she absolutely could not easily trust strangers, especially since she had learned a lesson from before.
During that free time, Ruminas silently evaluated these newcomers once again.
Takahashi Renji appears to be a trustworthy middle-aged man, while Shiranui Aoi exudes mystery with a gentle smile but doesn't reveal much about herself. As for Achlys, she shows a somewhat indifferent attitude from the start, seemingly not caring much about others.
"Well, let's just do this for now… Let's observe more and then decide," Ruminas muttered, then closed her eyes and focused on her work of adjusting her aura. She had to finish it quickly!